Category: Site News

Happy 4th Anniversary, Temptalia!

Four years ago, back in October 2006, Temptalia began. We posted a whopping 230 looks on October 3rd, 2006–nearly a year’s worth of looks, prior to the day, because Temptalia began as an archive for my makeup looks, which I posted on the MAC Cosmetics Livejournal Community. It’s been quite the journey, an ever-exciting ride, and I know there’s so much more ahead of us. I look forward to the next year, and the next, and hopefully many more!

To date, Temptalia has…

… received 416,470 comments

… published 7,818 posts

… written 1,780 review posts (keep in mind many cover more than one product or shade!)

… created 840 looks.

… asked 1,086 questions through Temptalia Asks You.

… received 18.8 million visits, 58.9 million pageviews

… held over 300 contests.

I can’t believe I was an undergraduate when I started this blog and now I’m seven months away from graduating my JD/MBA program. I never thought this is where I would be, but this is exactly where I want to be. I live and breathe this blog, and I love every minute of it. It has given me purpose when I had none, and it has shown me where my passion truly lies. There is just something about the beauty of the Temptalia community that brings joy into my life. This was not my dream when I was five years old, but it has become the dream I never dared to dream. It is everything and more–even better than the dream.

Fun Facts

Temptalia really started to pick up in September 2007 (114 posts vs. 20-40 posts per month previously).

At present, Temptalia reaches approximately 500,000 unique people every month, with 1.4 million visits and 4.3 million pageviews per month.

I’d like to take this moment to thank all of the amazing people who have helped to make Temptalia what it is today.

To readers: The biggest thank you of all is to all of you. To all of the lovely people who have believed in me, believed in the spirit of Temptalia, and continued to visit, to support us, and to watch us grow–to participate and contribute to that growth. It is your feedback that helps us know what we do right, what we do wrong; your participation and contributions that give the site diversity and variety; your passion that inspires and motivates me to continually improve Temptalia. You have all watched me grow up (and are still watching me); you have seen me through my struggles, and you are all helping me reach my dreams. You have and will always be my focus and greatest motivator, and I can’t thank you enough for giving me the opportunity.

To my family: I will be eternally greatful for my family; my parents, sister, grandparents, aunts, and uncles. Their enduring support that never wavers, not even once, gives me the strength to make it through moments of doom and pride in myself at each marker of success. Their love and support help me to achieve things I never thought I would, but they always knew I could. To my Mom: she is my mentor, as I work towards making my dreams come true; the most inspiring woman I know–my role model. To my Dad: he keeps me grounded and reminds me to have fun, who checks Temptalia regularly and even watches my YouTube videos after a long day at work. To my sister: for keeping makeup fun and learning about even more so. To my grandmothers, aunts, and uncles: for all of your word-of-mouth recommendations to anyone who listens, for knowing everything I’m capable of and never letting me forget it. You have helped me become the person I am today and shaped the person I will be in the future. You all drive me to reach for bigger, better things; to dream bigger dreams; and to know I will always have you to lean on.

To the boy: The level of emotional support you have given me over the years has been insurmountable. There is nothing that can repay you for that. For every time a comment has made me cry, you have been my shoulder; you have listened to me babble on and on about the same thing for hours on end, and you never tell me to shut up. For every success I have found, you have been there to share it with me. I look at you and know that I’m right where I’m supposed to be. Shaun does much of the behind-the-scenes work here at Temptalia, many things that are virtually invisible but absolutely essential. He is much more than just my emotional support–he’s technical support for all things Temptalia!

Thank you to everyone who has taken the time to visit the blog, leave a comment, ask a question, or simply lurk! Thank you from the bottom of my heart for your unending support over these past four years! There are never enough words to express to you what this blog has become to me, what you have all become to me. Every morning I wake up feeling lucky because I’m fortunate enough to be able to bring you Temptalia each day. Thank you!

Breast Cancer Awareness with Polo Ralph Lauren’s Pink Pony

This October marks the 10th anniversary of Ralph Lauren’s Pink Pony Foundation, and the brand has collaborated with 100 bloggerswho snapped shots of themselves wearing the Pink Pony polo. The Pink Pony effort is a global, year-round effort and doesn’t just focus on breast cancer but other types of cancer as well. Pink Pony is a unique effort, as their mission is to provide cancer care to the medically undeserved communities and provide treatment at earlier, more curable stages. The Pink Pony Fund supports programs for cancer screening, early diagnosis, treatment, research and patient navigation.

If you’re shopping Ralph Lauren, they’re giving customers 25% off while they donate 10% with code RLGIVE2010. Additionally, there is a charity auction that runs from October 1st through the 21st with 10% of the net proceeds benefiting the Pink Pony Fund.

What is breast cancer?

Breast cancer knows few boundaries. It is one of the most frequently diagnosed cancers today. All women are at risk; and, although rare, men can also develop the deadly disease. Breast cancer is complex and unpredictable. We aren’t sure what causes breast cancer, so, we can’t say for sure how to prevent. We do know that early detection saves lives.

An estimated 192,370 new cases of invasive breast cancer are expected to occur among women in the U.S. in 2009. An estimated 40,170 women will die. In addition to invasive breast cancer, 62,280 new cases of in situ breast cancer are expected to occur among women in 2009.

An estimated 1,910 men will be diagnosed with breast cancer, and an estimated 440 will die in 2009.

Breast cancer is the leading cancer among American women and second only to lung cancer in cancer deaths.

More than two million women currently living in the U.S. have been diagnosed and treated for breast cancer.

About 85% of all women diagnosed with breast cancer DO NOT have a family history.

Breast cancer in men is rare, but it does happen.

Early Detection & Treatment

Early detection is the key to surviving breast cancer. When breast cancer is diagnosed at its earliest stages, the five-year survival rate is over 95 percent.

Mammograms are the best and most widely available breast cancer screening tool. They can detect about 85 percent of all breast cancers.

I Spy Temptalia @ Revlon Lashes

Around 9PM tonight, I got some pretty EPIC news! The lovely @scorpio21090 tweeted me a picture of Temptalia’s Award logo stickered onto Revlon’s lashes. Back in January, when the results of the awards came out, Revlon asked if they could use the award logo on stickers for some of their false lashes, and I said yes… and I had almost forgotten about it until Anna tweeted an image to me!

This, of course, meant that the boy and I had to race out and see if we could find them locally! Anna got hers from Rite Aid, but we found ours at Walmart! It’s kind of this big moment in Temptalia history, so I picked up seven pairs (one for my mom, one for each grandma, then my aunts… the boy’s mom, ME!).

Anyway, thank you SO much for all of your support! It is because of your amazing and unwavering support that Temptalia has gotten to where it is today and I even get to blog about something like this. Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!

Success — We’ve Finished Our Move!

The Temptalia Tech Team is quite pleased to announce if you’re seeing this post, then you’re with us on our new digs. Hope you find them super fast, sexy (we have hyperthreading… whatever that is, but it sounds SUPER sexy!), and all that and more. Or at least faster. 🙂 We also have a failover server in place exclusively for when our main servers drop, so we’re hoping that you should not experience any downtime in the future.

OK, enough tech talk! Bascally, we’ve completed the move, and we’ve been able to verify that everything is working correctly on our end. It will take up to 72 hours for all readers to get pointed to the blog on the new server, but in the meanwhile, they will see the blog on the old server–and just no new posts. Because of the time lag between old and new, inevitably we will lose some comments. We’ve done everything we can do minimize this loss, so we hope you’ll understand and be patient — and just leave your comment again.

The Foundation Matrix in all of its master copy glory is now available & permanently housed on Temptalia.com! Check it out here!

Please enjoy and make sure to bookmark its new home for future reference! Thank you to everyone for their contributions–it is phenomenal to see the beauty community come together to create such an amazing reference. We will continue to modify and add to the Matrix as new foundations are released or as shade matches for existing foundations come in.

The Pink Report: Where do you fall?

Recently, I saw an overview/teaser of The Pink Report, which is a study of Women & Walmart as Beauty and Personal Care consumers. It seems like an interesting study, if the teaser is any indication, though as a mere beauty blogger, $1500 for the full study is out of my budget!

I thought I would share with you the part that was the most surprising to me–both as a beauty enthusiast, as well as looking at my so un-beauty aware family members–that 22% of women in the study spent under $50 a year on annual beauty spending of color and facial skin care. I guess I am still continually surprised that more women (and people in general) don’t have to stick to meticulous skincare regimens (just thinking SPF and cleanser, even). I wish I could be one of those people who didn’t have to do anything to their skin! (My parents are both examples of those people!)

I know where I fall. I think even when I first got into beauty, I was there–cleanser, toner, makeup remover, SPF, and a night cream can really add up, even if you buy affordable products, on an annual basis.